For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
To build again the things once destroyed, torn down, abandoned, or rejected is to make oneself a transgressor. Seeking to be justified by Christ does not make Christ a minister of sin. Justification through Christ leads through the law to being dead to the law in order to live unto God, not to a return to sin.
The surrounding argument teaches that through the law the believer is dead to the law that he might live unto God. He is crucified with Christ, yet he lives because Christ lives in him. The life he now lives in the flesh he lives by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself for him. He does not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law then Christ died in vain. Christ living within means Christ formed within by eating the Word of God, which is His flesh and blood. So feeding on the Word gives Christ within, the hope of glory, and makes the believer a partaker of the divine nature.
As blood is formed from food eaten, and the body must be daily supplied in order to renew blood, so the Word must be eaten daily as meat and drink. Its entrance gives light and understanding to the simple, enlightens the mind, opens the heart to the engrafted word, and renews the spirit of the mind. It supplies nourishment, vitality, and growth up into Christ the living Head. This growth is in constant dependence, like a branch firmly united fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine.
Restoring what was torn down means letting the old self-centered, unrenewed nature revive to do harm. It is to elevate personal plans and to exalt human plans while leaving Christ out of counsel. In that way a person rebuilds what was once destroyed and rejected.
To build again the things once destroyed, torn down, abandoned, or rejected is to make oneself a transgressor. Seeking to be justified by Christ does not make Christ a minister of sin. Justification through Christ leads through the law to being dead to the law in order to live unto God, not to a return to sin.
The surrounding argument teaches that through the law the believer is dead to the law that he might live unto God. He is crucified with Christ, yet he lives because Christ lives in him. The life he now lives in the flesh he lives by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself for him. He does not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law then Christ died in vain. Christ living within means Christ formed within by eating the Word of God, which is His flesh and blood. So feeding on the Word gives Christ within, the hope of glory, and makes the believer a partaker of the divine nature.
As blood is formed from food eaten, and the body must be daily supplied in order to renew blood, so the Word must be eaten daily as meat and drink. Its entrance gives light and understanding to the simple, enlightens the mind, opens the heart to the engrafted word, and renews the spirit of the mind. It supplies nourishment, vitality, and growth up into Christ the living Head. This growth is in constant dependence, like a branch firmly united fiber by fiber and vein by vein to the vine.
Restoring what was torn down means letting the old self-centered, unrenewed nature revive to do harm. It is to elevate personal plans and to exalt human plans while leaving Christ out of counsel. In that way a person rebuilds what was once destroyed and rejected.